Health and fitness tracking features are front and center in Garmin’s new series of watches, released this morning.
The wearable giant’s premier launch was the Venu, a GPS smartwatch with an AMOLED display. It comes with 24-7 fitness monitoring including advanced sleep with a pulse oximeter, respiration tracking, abnormal heart rate alerts, menstrual cycle tracking, stress tracking with relaxation reminders and hydration tracking. Users can also tap into fitness workouts including cardio, Pilates and yoga. Additionally, the watch has 20 built-in indoor and outdoor sports apps.
The new watch also includes an incident detection feature that is compatible with some activities. Since this watch has GPS tracking, it can also help pinpoint the user’s location and send alerts to emergency contacts. The new watch will set customers back $399.99.
The company also released updated versions of the vívoactive watch, including the 4/4S vívomove Series which share the 24-7 health monitoring features. Other devices include the Garmin Legacy Hero Series comprised of Marvel-themed smart watches for grown-ups.
WHY IT MATTERS
With more special features and gadgets coming onto the market for wearables the competition is fierce. For example, last year Apple unveiled that its Apple Watch Series 4 would have an atrial fibrillation-detecting algorithm and ECG built in, landing an FDA De Novo designation for the technology.
Fitbit has also been hot to release new wearables. Last year the release of its Versa helped boost its annual sales, with its successor announced just last week.
THE LARGER TREND
Garmin’s health features have continuously been evolving. In April the company announced the new menstrual cycle tracking app. The technology helps women record their cycle type and symptoms, as well as take notes on their personal health.
While these new launches are for a more mainstream user, this isn’t the first smartwatch released by the company this year. In May Garmin released a line of high-end smartwatches called the Marq line, which ranged from $1,500 to $2,500.
ON THE RECORD
“We’re thrilled to announce Garmin’s first smartwatch with an AMOLED display,” Dan Bartel, VP of global consumer sales at Garmin, said in a statement. “Venu breathes life and color into live watch faces and animated workouts. In keeping with Garmin standards, all of this is achieved without sacrificing battery life.”
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